It Isn't Always What It Seems
by EdenAdvance
Summary: John finds a way home, but it isn't what it seems to be...


It Isn't Always What It Seems

It Isn't Always What It Seems by [Edenadvance][1]

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, yadda, yadda, yadda. Please don't sue me. 

Notes: Everyone does this kinda fic, so I wanna do this fic too! It's kinda John/Aeryn POV

Spoilers: I saw everything till CDM. Season 1 and 2 spoilers. 

Archiving: Please? I give you a cookie... 

FeetBack: Yes, please. Give me my feet back. Anyway, everything is welcome at [Edenadvance@yahoo.com][2]. 

WARNING: Death of character. Not gonna tell who it is though, but if you scroll down, you'll find out. But, lemme tell you this, it's not Scorpy who's gonna die. He's not in this fic, 'cause he gives me nightmares. 

JOHN: 

I walked into Command, after being called by Pilot. He told me to come to Command, because Moya had found something. So, I dragged myself out of bed, careful not to wake Aeryn and succeeding. I got dressed and hurried to Command. 

As soon as I entered, I saw what Pilot had been talking about. Moya had found a wormhole.

"Is it stable, Pilot?" I heard myself ask him. 

"Yes, scans show that since Moya discovered the anomaly, it hasn't changed. I'm trying to see what is on the other side. Image coming through... now." 

I could feel my heart stop for a microt, when the image of a small planet, blue and green colors, with some occasional white resembling clouds. Earth. Home. 

"Pilot? How long can we stay here?" I asked. 

"Three to four solar days. Then, we have to go to the commerce planet." He answered. 

"Good. Inform me if the wormhole shows any change. I'll be with my module." I said and turned to leave. 

"Commander Crichton? Should I inform officer Sun?" 

Damn. I had completely forgotten about her. What would Aeryn think if I could go home? Would she even consider joining me? I turned around, looked at Pilot's holo-image and decided on an answer. 

"No. I'll tell her personally." I said and I left Command. 

On the way to my module, I couldn't get Aeryn out of my mind. We went through so much together on the fake earth, I could completely understand her decision to stay on Moya, if she would stay on Moya. 

I finally reach my module, or as Aeryn usually calls it, the bucket of dren. It's full with dents, burn marks and other signs of combat. Hell, compared to Aeryn's prowler, the Farscape I is a bucket of dren and it's a miracle that she still flies. I spend the next arn working on her, thinking of ways to tell Aeryn that I might be going home. 

AERYN: 

As soon as I opened my eyes, I know that there's something wrong. John's not here. He's never awake earlier than I am. I get up and search for any signs of John in the room. The only thing I can find is his recording device. 

"Pilot? Where's Crichton?" I ask. 

"He's in the docking bay, working on his module." Comes the reply. 

For a moment, I fear that he's planning to leave Moya, to leave me. Like all the others did before him. But I quickly push that thought away, because this is John. Crichton. The one that stood up for me, twice. 

I rush to the cargo bay, stopping when I reach the doorway, peeking around the corner. There he is, working on his module. 

"John?" I ask softly, almost whispering. I walk in, thinking he didn't hear me, but he did. As soon as I reach him, he turns around. 

"Morning." He says and he greets me with a kiss. 

"What are you doing?" I ask, looking at the Farscape. 

"Tinkering with the bucket of dren." He answers and he goes to stand behind me, his arms around me. I smile when he uses the name I gave to his module. 

"Aeryn?" he starts and I dread what he's going to say. 

I turn around in his arms and look in his eyes. 

"We have to talk. Pilot found a wormhole, leading to Earth." He says, rushing it. 

"Then, you're going?" I ask, hoping he doesn't hear the sadness in my voice. 

He nods slowly and holds me tight. 

"Aeryn, I know what happened on the fake Earth, but still..." he stops mid-sentence and I look up. "Come with me? Please, Aeryn. It won't be home without you." 

I know I'm staring at him, my mouth probably hanging open, but I don't care. He's asking me to go with him. To leave my universe? 

"I know that you don't know what to expect down there, but I promise you; I'll never leave you. I swear to protect you when you're in danger." 

He knows that he doesn't need to protect me, but still... I like his words. They make me feel safe. Unconsciously my thoughts go to all the others I had, who made me feel safe and left me. I want to kick myself for thinking like that about John. 

I kiss him, giving him my reply and he smiles, like the way a child would smile when he gets presents. 

"I guess that's a yes?" he asks and I nod. 

I turn around again, to leave and get some breakfast, but he stops me. 

"If you don't like it there, we can always go back to Moya. I wouldn't mind." He says and I know how difficult it must be for him to do this. When I look at him, the smile is back on his face, as if it never left, but I know that the smile was gone while he said that. 

I nod again and this time I leave the cargo bay, looking back for a microt to see him tinkering with his module again. 

JOHN: 

It was done. We had said goodbye to all of them: Zhaan, D'Argo, Chiana, Rygel, Pilot, Little Blue the DRD and of course Moya. We had discussed which ship we would take and finally we settled on taking both the Farscape and the Prowler. I guess this was Aeryn's way of showing that I wouldn't have to leave Earth behind if she didn't like it there. But I made a promise to her, cycles ago, saying that I would never leave her. I stick to my promises, so she's not going back without me. 

We both have T'raltixx' Disappearing Device, since we found a way to build them ourselves. In total, we have three of the devices. 

Just when I was about to climb into the Farscape I, Chiana came running towards me.

"What is it Pip?" I ask, still laughing, but deep inside it hurts to leave my friends behind. 

"Take these, they'll remind you of us. Besides, it's your share." She says, pushing a pack of crackers in my hands. 

"Thanks Pip." I reply, and I give her a kiss on her cheek. "Take care of them, Pip, especially D'Argo. Don't let them come after us." 

"Aeryn!" I call for her. It was a rough landing and I hope the scanners didn't pick us up. 

"Where are you!" I call again. Frell, I can't find her. She was right behind me in the sky, but I can't find where she landed the prowler. I camouflaged the Farscape I, just in case someone might be wandering around here. Suddenly, I hear a sound. Like twigs snapping. Someone is coming. I grab for my pulse gun and climb in a tree. 

Aeryn always said I was good at hiding, so I'd better use my gift. 

I let out my breath, which I wasn't aware that I was holding, when I see Aeryn sneaking around beneath me. I drop out of the tree, landing on the dirt behind her and she immediately turns around, pulse-rifle aimed at me. 

"Relax, it's me. Where's the prowler?" I ask. 

"I hid it, using plants, twigs, anything I could find. Where's the Farscape?" she asks in return. 

"Same thing. Let's go." I say and start walking. She must've been close behind me, because when I suddenly stop and turn around, she's in my arms. 

"What?" she asks annoyed. 

"We can't just walk down the street with a gun. Not the one you're holding." 

It isn't long before we're driving in my old neighborhood. And thanks to me, Aeryn now thinks it is perfectly normal to steal cars on earth. 

"We're almost there. Just look out of the window and don't think about it." I say to Aeryn. How could I've known that she would get sick in a car? 

"Crichton, please stop. Just for a microt." 

I stop the car immediately and she's out of the car before I can open the door for her. 

"Are you okay?" I ask as I watch her. She's on her knees, throwing up. 

Note to self: no junkfood for Aeryn. 

She's done, standing up again and looking like dren. 

"Come. We got to get going again. You're going to be okay for a few microts right?" I ask and soon we're in the car again. 

AERYN: 

I feel like dren. He didn't like it when we had to stop for me, because I wasn't feeling well. 

"I'm hungry." I tell him and he sighs. 

"I'll get you something to eat as soon as we get home. Deal?" 

I nod and continue to look out of the window. I like Earth; it's even more beautiful than when we were on the fake Earth. He told me that this is another continent, another piece of land, but I don't understand why that would change the humans living here. I'm starting to feel worse again and I think I'll have to vomit again soon. 

Finally, I feel 'the car', as he calls it, slowing. 

"We're here. How are you feeling?" he asks when he opens the door for me. I don't say a word, but I know he can tell how I feel from the look on my face. 

"Come, I'll get you something to eat. At least, if the keys are still on the same place." He says and we go to the door. John searches for something for a microt and he pushes a piece of metal in the door. Keys. They probably had the same effect as my ident chip used the have. 

He opens the door and we enter the building. 

JOHN: 

I watch as Aeryn eats her cereals. It was all I could find in the kitchen, and Aeryn doesn't seem to mind. 

"So, what's this?" she asks, her mouth full with cereals. 

"Cereals. Everyone eats them. They're good for you. I hope." I answer. 

"Oh." She seems to be content with my explanation. "Do you have anymore beer?" 

I get up and leave to find a few beer bottles. Finding them, I return, just in time to hear the door open and to see dad enter, followed by DK. We both stand there, our mouths open, staring at eachother. Without saying anything, I crash into his arms, the first time we get to see eachother in cycles. 

"Dad..." I can only say. 

I look from my dad's face to Aeryn. She stopped chewing on her cereals, and is looking at DK. 

"Dad, DK, this is Aeryn, my... uhm... friend." I say. I look at my best friend, DK, but Aeryn had his attention. 

"Son, where have you been all these years?" Dad asks and before I can answer, DK speaks. 

"Probably with her? I mean, I would have..." 

"I was out there, dad," I begin, not paying attention to DK's remark, although I'm used that sort of stuff coming from him. "In space. There's life out there, you wouldn't even begin to imagine." 

Now, DK is looking at me. 

"So it was you. The news is all over the radio, how they picked up a signal from a strange craft on the scanners. They couldn't find it though." He says. 

I immediately look at Aeryn, alerted. 

"Could they find us here?" she asks and I nod reluctantly. 

Dad and DK's attention is back on Aeryn. 

"What did she say?" Dad is the first to ask and I groan. They don't have translator microbes. Over the cycles, I've gotten used to them and I hadn't thought about the fact that Aeryn spoke Sebacean and not English. 

"She asked if they could find us here. Dad, do they suspect anything?" I ask, but dad shakes his head. 

"I don't work there anymore, I have nothing to do with it. DK quit soon after you disappeared." He answers. "Son, we need to talk." 

AERYN:

They have talked longer than two arns, and I begin to understand why John talks so much. Occasionally, John's father asks something about translator microbes or me, but John answers all the questions. When I say something to John, the others stare at me as if I'm crazy. 

"John, I'm tired." I say to him and he looks at me, worried. 

"Are you okay?" he asks in return and I hate to tell him that I'm feeling frelling miserable, again. 

John's father obviously understood what my reply was and brought us upstairs, to another room. 

"Wait here, I'll be right back okay?" John says and he disappears again, following his father. 

I can hear them talking in the hallway and I can't help but listen. 

"How long will you stay here son?" 

"Two more days. Then the ship I live on is leaving the system. I wasn't planning on leaving again, but look at Aeryn. She's getting sick here, dad. I promised her I would never leave her." 

I can't believe he would leave his home because I can't live there.

"I want to spend those days with you, DK and Aeryn, showing her around a bit. At least she would know what my world is like." 

"The world you left behind, isn't the same world anymore, son." I hear John's father say. Then they start to whisper and I can't hear the rest of the conversation. 

Half an arn later, he comes back, offering me some water to drink. 

"Here, it'll make you feel better." He says and I take a sip of the cool water. 

"John, you don't have to leave, just because I'm not feeling well." I say and he looks at me. 

"You eavesdropped? You listened to what we were saying?" he says, and I get the feeling he's angry with me. Then he's smiling again. Sometimes, John really confuses me. 

"It doesn't matter Aeryn. Dad says that the world is getting a terrible place to live. Terrorism is increasing and the army isn't trustworthy anymore. If they would know about you, we'd be dead in a microt." He says to me. "Now, let's go to sleep, okay. I'm beat." He says and falls down on the bed. 

I wake up nauseous again. Without waking John, I get out of bed, stumbling over a bucket. I use the bucket to throw up in, simply because I had no idea where I should go to anyway. I look up to see John looking at me, barely keeping his eyes open. 

"Sorry." I mumble and he pulls me back to bed. He wraps his arms around me and I lay my head on his chest, listening to the beating of his heart. 

"Feeling better yet?" he asks and the sound vibrates in his chest. 

"Yes. I'm sorry for waking you." I answer. 

"I figured you might feel sick in the morning. Now, don't kick the bucket, okay?" he jokes and I smile. 

We lie like this for another arn, the sickness finally going away. 

JOHN: 

It really hurt me to see Aeryn throwing up, knowing it was, in a way, my fault. After an arn of lying they, just snuggling with eachother, I get up and go down the stairs. Dad had already made breakfast, having woken up earlier. 

"Sleep well?" he asked, reading the morning paper. 

"Yeah, I did." I answer, grabbing a cup of coffee. "Anything interesting in the news?" I ask, sitting next to him. 

"Yes. The airforce is investigating the UFO sighting from yesterday. They mention you, and I suspect that they might be coming here. In fact, they might be watching us already." Dad answered. 

I know what it means. There's no way in hell that they're going to get their hands on Aeryn. I look at my dad and stand up. 

"I'm going to tell Aeryn. Could you do me a favor?" I ask and he nods. I quickly tell him what I was planning and then I leave to get Aeryn. 

"Aeryn?" I ask, entering my... our bedroom, I quickly correct myself. She has already dressed in her usual Peacekeeper uniform.

"What is it?" she replies, walking over to me. 

"We have to go. It's not safe for you here." I say and she nods. 

I quickly get dressed in my clothes, also still the Peacekeeper uniform I found on Moya. When I turn around, I catch her staring out of the window, staring at would could have been if my world wasn't as cruel as it was. 

"When they find me, will they kill me? Like they did with Rygel on that false Earth?" she asks. 

I can only nod in reply. 

"I wouldn't have thought that humans were capable of such horror." She remarks. 

I walk closer to her and I hold her in my arms.

"They're not all Crichtons. It isn't always what it seems, Aeryn. My people are capable of things like mass-murder, but not all of them. I'm not capable of doing that." 

I hear the door open, downstairs and I tell Aeryn that we really should go now. 

As soon as we reach the stairs, I see my dad, standing there with a large bag in his hands. DK is right behind him. 

"We've got to hurry. Tell me where I have to drop you off." DK says, looking outside. 

We're in the forest again, the same place where we landed. DK has followed Aeryn, wanting to see her Prowler. 

"Here son, the things you asked for." Dad says and he gives me the bag. 

"Dad, I don't know how to say goodbye..." I say in return. We're both quiet. That's when I hear the sounds... engines... the army... 

"They've found you. Go now son!" Dad says, but I can't move. 

"Dad, come with me." I say suddenly.

"What?" 

"You said it yourself, the Earth isn't what it used to be. Come with me to Moya." 

Without saying another thing, he climbs in the Farscape I. I look at Aeryn and DK. As soon as he saw my dad climbing in the Farscape, he knew what he had to do. He started to climb in Aeryn's Prowler, but looks behind him when they soldiers arrive.

"Freeze!" the commanding officer yells at us, but I had already closed the canopy, starting up my engines. I could barely hear the shot, but I instantly knew that something was amiss. 

As soon as we leave the wormhole, we set course for Moya. She hadn't moved much from her position, and soon my dad and me were standing in the docking bay, looking on as Aeryn lands. As soon as the Prowler touches the ground, she's on the floor, calling me. That's when I notice DK, slumped in his seat. 

"Zhaan! Meet us in the docking bay, now." I say, using the communicator that was still lying in the Farscape module. I rush over to DK, now lying on the docking bay's floor. He's bleeding badly, and dad's trying to stop it. I feel Aeryn tugging at my arm, pulling me away, and giving my dad more room to look at DK. Soon, Zhaan rushes in, followed closely by D'Argo and Chiana. 

"Bring him to my quarters, now." She says to D'Argo and the big Luxan lifts him in his arms. 

I notice Chiana looking at my father, and my father looking at me. He looks tired, scared and amazed. Then a DRD approaches and injects him with translator microbes. 

"What is that?" he asks and Chiana talks before I can. 

"It's a DRD. Those were translator microbes. What are you?" 

I smile when she asks that question. 

"He's my dad, Pip." I answer. 

"John, I could understand her." Dad states and I laugh. 

"Yeah, it's amazing, right? Come, we have to go to DK. Zhaan's the best doctor you can find here. At least on the ship." 

I briefly see Chiana look at the bag that was lying near the module

"Go ahead, Pip. Take a look. Just don't eat everything." I say and she grabs it. 

Epilogue:

I sit on the Terrace, watching the stars. I feel a tear slowly escape my eye and I turn around to leave. DK hadn't made it, the injury was too bad, and even Zhaan couldn't save him. We shot him out into space, after we had a burial ceremony. Chiana is addicted to the chocolate I brought back from Earth, along with the beer for Aeryn. Thinking about Aeryn, I walk to Zhaan's quarters, hoping that she's done with her yet. 

Right after we got back to our quarters, Aeryn got sick again. She threw up for a quarter arn, and I demanded that she go and see Zhaan. I didn't want to loose someone else, not after I had just lost my best friend. I meet up with my dad and I briefly look at him. He finds Moya interesting, and he's just starting to learn all the things I learned in my first cycle on board Moya. 

"She's ready, John. Go inside..." he says and I nod, entering my quarters. 

When I enter, Zhaan looks at me.

"It's nothing you expected, John." She simply says and leaves me with Aeryn.

I sit next to her, on the bed where she's lying. 

"What did Zhaan find?" I ask, my back towards her. 

When she doesn't answer, I turn around. She moves into my arms, and I hold her.

"We're getting a child. Zhaan says that it is the reason why I haven't been feeling well lately. It's going to get worse too, because the child is half Sebacean, half human." 

I can't do more than just sit here, with Aeryn in my arms, thinking about what she just said. 

"We need to give it a good name, Aeryn." I say softly. 

"If it is a boy, I suggest we call him DK. He died as a warrior, John, defending me." 

I know that DK didn't really defend Aeryn, but I don't say a thing. I silently agree with her, DK died as a warrior and now he'll live again. If it is going to be a boy...

The End.

   [1]: mailto:Edenadvance@yahoo.com
   [2]: mailto:EdenAdvance@yahoo.com



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